YouTube announced on Twitter today that its about to provide more timely video view counts, which means the infamous “301+ views” will become a thing of the past.
Here’s the deal with 301+ for those who aren’t familiar. When a new video on YouTube started to get an influx of views the counter would stall at 301+ as a way to give the filters time to weed out any fake views from robots.
While this measure ultimately led to more accurate video view counts, it meant the counter was displaying a highly inaccurate view count for a period of time while thousands of viewers tuned in to watch the new video.
Along with its announcement, YouTube provided an infographic rationalizing its use of 301+:
We're saying goodbye to 301+ and hello to more up-to-date video views. pic.twitter.com/33OQuOvxcs
— YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) August 5, 2015
Going forward the company promises more up-to-date video view counts, adding new views in real time when the filters are confident the views are coming from real people. Views that are suspected to be coming from bots will be subject to further review.
This should lead to much more reliable metrics for new videos, not to mention video creators will never again have to go through the awkward stage of the 301+ view count.
Editorial Credit: Grisha Bruev / Shutterstock.com
